On Tuesday, Emmanuel Grégoire, the deputy mayor of Paris, said that the campaign criticizing the dirty side of the city was effective in highlighting the capital’s faults.
People in the capital had been using the hashtag ‘#SaccageParis’ (#TrashedParis), which went viral in 2021, sharing photos of the dirtier side of the city, with many photos featuring overflowing bin bags, rough concrete benches, rotting flower boxes, vandalism, and garish street furniture.
It “has been useful in the way that it forced us to question ourselves and react,” Grégoire stated, adding: “what they are criticising is true but sometimes false because they are reposting some photos ad nauseam.”
The deputy mayor made the comments as Paris’ city council announced a ‘Manifesto for Beauty’, which outlined plans to tackle the capital’s trash-ridden streets and dirty buildings.
The manifesto sees officials taking a zero-tolerance approach to leaving rubbish in public places. There will also be an effort to remove bright and garish road markings, as well as removing plastic ‘mushroom seats’ – which are despised by locals – from the sidewalks.
In 2015, the city gave amateur gardeners the chance to plant flowers around the trees in the street. But the project hasn’t gone according to plan, with many mini-gardens becoming rubbish-strewn eyesores covered in dog feces. This initiative will now be overturned.
The announcement follows eight measures that were laid out in July last year, in an attempt to give the city a face lift.
Paris has also started an initiative to create more green spaces, a measure that will both improve air quality and add color to the grey cityscape.